Inspiration

Train Your Brain to Get What You Want

On more than one occasion, Marisa Peer was named Britain’s Best Therapist. In one of her most famous speeches, Marisa explains how to train your mind to reach beyond your limits and get what you really want. Below are the key points from her speech.

Our Minds Are Here to Serve Us

Marisa Peer began by asserting the most important collaboration we will ever make is between ourselves and our minds. Furthermore, Dr. Peer claims that when you collaborate with your mind and tell it what you want, it will do everything in its power to attain the object of your desire. According to Marisa Peer, there are four things about our minds which – if we put into practice – will ensure we have success across the board.

The Four Principles of the Mind

First, Dr. Peer asserts our minds will always do exactly what it thinks we want them to do. Thus, if we are not getting what we want it is because we are not collaborating properly with our mind. Secondly, according to Dr. Peer, our minds are hardwired to move toward pleasure and away from pain. Third, the way we feel about anything boils down to two things: ‘the pictures we make in our heads and the words we say to ourselves.’ And fourth, our minds love what is familiar. In other words, our minds are, ‘programmed to keep going over-and-over again toward what is familiar.’ Thus according to Marisa Peer, ‘If you want to succeed at any level, you’ve got to make what is familiar unfamiliar, and what is unfamiliar familiar.’

The First Principle: Tell You Mind Exactly What You Want It To Do

According to Marisa Peer, our minds are always working out for our own best interest. Our minds listens to what we say, and act accordingly. Thus, if we say, ‘I want a week off in bed’, the chances we will come down with an illness are then greatly heightened. It’s almost as if our minds are genies willing to grant whichever wish we command to it. So, conversely from the above example according to Dr. Peer, if we use language like, ‘I have chosen to do this, and chosen to feel great about it’, it will go a long way toward changing our lives.

The Second Principle: Link Incredible Pleasure to What You Want

Dr. Peer states, ‘This is way more than positive thinking: it is collaborating with your mind.’ Thus, if we are not getting what we want from life then we are not collaborating properly with our minds and we must learn how to. According to Dr. Peer, if we want to get something which requires a tremendous amount of work, we must constantly tell our mind that we love the work even if it isn’t true. That is how we collaborate with our mind: we must, ‘tell it, using very specific, very detailed, very precise words, what we want.’

So, if you tell your mind, ‘I like this. I want this. I’ve chosen this’, and you link pleasure to these statements, your mind will move toward whatever the object of desire is. Even if it’s something that will cause us a tremendous amounts of pain, if we are collaborating with our minds and properly telling it what we want, we will be able to get through the pain to achieve our goal. In fact, we will actually move toward the pain knowing we will feel even better afterwards. A good example of this would be forcing ourselves to go through the pain of going in a run because we know the rush of endorphins we will feel when we’re done will outweigh the temporary pain we experience during that same run. Thus, in order to get what we want we must link pleasure to doing the things that are hard to do.

The Third Principle: Feed Your Mind Very Specific Images and Language of What You Want

The third thing Marisa Peer wants us to appreciate is the only language the brain understands: the pictures we make in our head, and the language we use. Thus, when we are properly collaborating with our brains, we must make sure the pictures we envision and the words we are using are bringing us the things we want. According to Dr. Peer, the pictures we make in our heads and the words we use change everything. To demonstrate this idea, Marisa Peer asks the audience to pretend they are eating a lemon, then asks them to notice the way heir mouths have begun to water. It is this effect the mind has on the body that Dr. Peer is most interested in.

The Fourth Principle: Make What You Want Very Familiar

The fourth thing, as stated above, is that our minds love what is familiar. According to Marisa Peer, if what is familiar is procrastination, laziness, and not applying ourselves, this is what our brain will go for. Thus, if we want to become successful, we need to make these negative behaviors unfamiliar, and the more positive traits, such as working hard and believing in ourselves, familiar. So, just like eating the lemon, if we believe we are great at something, we will tell our brains what we want to be and our minds in turn will make this thing so. As an example, Dr. Peer points to Mohammed Ali who claimed he told himself he was the best ever until he became the best ever. Or, how Arnold Swarzenegger once said, ‘Modesty is not a word that applies to me. And I hope it never does.’ Whatever we tell our mind, it believes, so Dr. Peer encourages us to tell our minds better things. ‘First you make your beliefs, then your beliefs make you. When you believe in yourself, other people will believe in you too.’

The Bannister Effect As Proof

As a further example, Marisa Peer points to Roger Bannister. Bannister told himself the four things above when he decided he wanted to run a mile in under four minutes when no one ever had. By taking control of his mind and taking it through these four steps he was able to achieve what no one had before. According to Dr. Peer, this is the reason why Olympic world records keep being broken: because our potential expands as we think it is possible.

So to reiterate, Marisa Peer suggests if we want to have the most fantastic collaboration with our own minds, we’ve got to tell our mind what we want, link massive pleasure to getting the thing and pain to not getting it, change the pictures and words we use to match what it is we want, and make these ideas of having this thing familiar. When we do this, we will truly collaborate properly with our minds and in turn our minds will expand to bring us whatever it is we ask it for. It is not positive thinking, it is re-wiring our brains for success.